Gables 12 Twenty One

Where do I begin? I have lived here for almost 3 years and I have seen the whole spectrum of Luxury Living to run down and not worth the $ 2100 I pay per month (including the pet rent, trash and water). When I first moved in to Gables the property was pristine. The property manager (PM) walked the property every morning. The service requests have always and remain stellar response. I love Ricky and JB. While the first PM was here, there was never trash in sight, the landscaping was gorgeous in both buildings (even in the winter it was kept quaint). About a year in to my lease the PM moved back to Florida and everything went to hell and a hand basket. The condition of the building started to decline. Rats — LARGE rats the size of my small dog started invading the property. It took almost a year and threats of calling the health department before anything was done. The problem was coming from the affordable projects behind Gables1221. To this day there are still rat traps in all the trash rooms on the ground levels. Cabinets — dont even get me started on the cabinets. They installed in 2009 (when the property was first built) horrible cabinets that had to be replaced in ALL UNITS. This is no small undertaking. The PM at the time assured me it would be done within 6 months and well — almost three years later it is still is not done. I did luck out one day when a resident cancelled and I got slated in; however, the vendor came to my apartment, made a massive mess (saw dust everywhere) and went so far to leave behind nails on the floor that my dog could have stepped on or worse tried to eat (he use to put everything in his mouth). The funny thing in all that? They did not replace all the cabinet doors and two of them were damaged.
So if you are still reading at this point, you are probably saying — why would anyone still live there? Well, parking is not that bad, I essentially paid no money to move in (going rate for the area, security, 1^st and last = $ 6000 approx) and I have an awesome unit on the fourth floor. Stick construction is noisy on all other floors so I caution you if you rent a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd floor apartment in this building. This building is so noisy top to bottom, I had to sell my vacuum cleaner and buy a new one because the lady under me complained so much. Sideways noise is virtually nonexistent however.
The main building is starting to smell like dog urine and the second building that I live in does not get nearly the attention as the main building. I have seen some posts that blame Kelly (the current manager) — honestly I blame the regional and Gables. The same regional has been in existence since I moved in and while the first PM was awesome you cannot necessarily blame Kelly as the regional is more than aware of all that is written on here and has not done anything about it (whether its replacing Kelly or getting her the adequate help she needs.
I work in real estate and there is no way this property is not operating under a 95% occupancy ratio. They can more than afford to get this property up to the level we expect it to be. I now just take daily note of things and how long it takes to to get them fixed — like the fountain filter that has been hanging by a nail for 8 months now and looks worse now that the fountains are drained of water or the garage door that has been broken for three weeks (as of the writing of this post) and to me that is a security issue that should not lapse that long, or how about over the summer when I had to yet again threaten a public health report to Arlington County when some braniac thought it would be ok to let the gym go without AC for two weeks because a part was on order.
Every building will have its nuances. I have lived in far superior buildings and I think for the Rosslyn area at $ 2100 a month you can probably find better.

Do yourself thousands of dollars a month and poor management by Kelly in the leasing office and don’t move here.
I can not begin to elaborate on how awful Kelley in the leasing office is. For the money your spending everyone deserves better quality service.
Fixes are OK but happen too frequent for what you pay, again avoid.

Seven months later: They did replace the cabinets. The maintenance staff is great, really nice guys. They fix things very quickly. The grounds are very well maintained and pretty. The gym is sparse and missing some of what are now basics (no bosu ball or resistance bands — just the basic treadmills, free weights, and assorted machines). When there is a party in the adjacent public area, it usually spills into the gym — because you have to go through the gym to go outside or into the main building. Not the greatest planning, and not enjoyable to smell hot foods and have people come in and stand there and watch you work out (which happens).
The front desk/​management is really the central issue at the Gables over the past year. They are unreliable, slow to respond to email, make a lot of mistakes on basic account information, and seem a little annoyed if you go into the office to ask to pick up a package. They are frequently out of the office on sales tours, which are the clear priority over residents. Because there is never more than one person there (or so it seems), the office is frequently closed for 20 minutes or more at random times.
They do tend to nickel and dime you. But, most complexes like this seem to do that — lots of extra fees.
It’s a good place to live. But we liked it a lot more when Eli was the manager.

If you enjoy getting gouged, working out in a sparsely stocked gym with poorly maintained machinery, using a dog run that residents make their dogs’ personal bathroom, and being duped into rent prices that will most definitely go up 20% after your 11 month commitment then this IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!
I will preface my review with one positive: this place was not always so terrible! Jose and Eli, the first in the revolving door that is Gables management, were wonderful! They were responsive, proactive, attentive, and polite. The new management is simply the worst.
And now for the problems, and reasons why you should probably set your sights elsewhere, and I’m talking just about anywhere else:
1) MANAGEMENT will not do anything — especially if your dog is viciously attacked in a stairwell, by a dog that has already bitten several other dogs in the building. What they will do is patronize you, assure you that everything is taken care of, then dismiss you when you ask why that same dog is allow off-​leash in and around the building. The same goes for just about everything– they question why you are bringing them your packages, roll their eyes when you come to discuss something important like not having more than 5 minutes of hot water.
2) I suppose I took HOT WATER for granted before living here. It’s bearable when you are relegated to a 10 minute shower before it goes from warm to bone chilling cold. But when your dishes, and clothes don’t get properly washed it becomes a major issue. So if you appreciate hot showers, clean dishes, or clean clothes think twice
3) PRICE, if you are looking to stay somewhere for more than your initial lease term, this is not the place for you. So if moving every 11 months sounds like fun then definitely sign their lease. A month before your lease ends you will get an envelope informing you that should you wish to extend you will be paying AT LEAST 20% more for the next 11 months. 750 square feet for $ 2200 is just not something that appeals to me.
4) NOISE is a given in any apartment building, and there are certain levels of noise one must live with. The Gables did a great job of insulating between apartment walls (or maybe we just never had loud neighbors), but did a terrible job of insulating above and below. We were written up constantly for noise complaints by our downstairs neighbors when we did nothing more than just walk around our apartment. Moreover, we complained about our upstairs neighbors who would routinely drop boxes, throw things, and it was overwhelmingly loud. Nothing was ever done.
5) The GYM is a joke. Enjoy watching something on TV while you workout? Well lucky for you every TV in the gym is equipped with a universal remote, that also happens to work on every other TV. So your time on the treadmill is spent engaging in a war with your neighbor over what you want to watch. There is typically a broken machine, or two, and when the gym consists of ten total it doesn’t leave many options.
6) That brings me to my next complaint: the common areas. It used to be that one had to reserve the areas, which encompass both the back and front entrance to the building. Apparently the Gables has entered into a deal with the same family that invites their entire extended family over weekly for tea and dinner parties. They don’t have to reserve the rooms and invite 50+ people to take over the rooms, which spills into the gym, the lobby, and makes it a terrible environment for everyone else. But rest assured, management won’t do anything about it!
7) The general population of this building leaves something to be desired. At first it was young working couples, but that has morphed into rowdy just out of college twenty year olds that trash all of the common areas.

The building does have a good response to service requests but overall treatment from the management is poor. Whenever I called the management office, they had a bad attitude about whatever question I was asking. Also, on our tour we saw this beautiful model unit. When we moved in however, the finish on the cabinetry throughout the apartment was peeling and looked terrible. They promised that it would be replaced but it never was. At the time they were also building a dog run which they said would be ready by the time we moved in. It wasn’t ready until 5 months later.
Upon move out they made sure to milk us of every penny they could. They charged a «dirty appliance» fee which seems ridiculous given that the appliances were just slightly dirty from light use on top of the fact that every unit has to be professionally cleaned before new tenants move in anyway! The appliances would not have required any special heavy cleaning.
All in all. The guy they have responding to service requests is on top of his game but the management and corporate levels are shady. Unfortunately they are no worse than any of the other big corporate leasing companies in Arlington so this is just a case of picking your poison. I highly suggest renting from a private party if you have the time and energy to put in the extra effort.